Bill Gates criticizes Trump for halting WHO’s funding

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been vocal about the dangers of a pandemic long before the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. While all the countries have been doing their best to fight the pandemic, US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he will be halting WHO’s funding. Trump said WHO didn’t act accordingly to the pandemic and that the USA will review the resources provided to WHO before unblocking the funding.

In the tweet, Bill Gates criticized Trump for halting the funding and said the decision “is as dangerous as it sounds.” He also said that the world needs WHO “now more than ever.” In 2018-19, the USA has contributed $400 million (which includes $110 million assessed contributions) to WHO and is the major contributor by a margin. By pulling the funding, Trump is causing issues for the WHO who is working on fighting the ongoing pandemic.

Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds. Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever.

We are not exactly sure how badly this will affect WHO and its efforts to fight the pandemic. That said, leaders of all the major countries have publicly criticized Trump for his actions and noted that pulling funding right now is a bad decision and will hamper the efforts made by the organization to fight the coronavirus pandemic.